BEST OF NEW YORK


Services

Best Exterminator
Assured Environments
360 Lexington Avenue
Near 53rd Street
212-557-1515


Ask environmental groups why New York City still has a bug problem even though we dump 1.6 million gallons and 7.8 million pounds of pesticides on our apartments each year, and they’ll tell you it’s because our exterminators act less like the bouncers at Lotus than like willful Tarantino hit men. One company, Assured Environments, has consistently chosen to work on excluding pests rather than resorting to indiscriminate spraying and bombing. Started by the Kline family in 1934, the oft-renamed business has since acquired seven smaller exterminators—Allied, A-1, Barton, Bayridge, Pioneer, Thompkins, and United—all of which still operate under their original names. A call to any of the branches gets you a free consultation with technicians and, should your problem warrant it, with one of two in-house entomologists. Roaches are monitored with glue traps and treated with plant-derived pesticides. Webbing-clothes moths, prevalent whenever designers increase the use of wool, cashmere, and linen, are treated with a thorough closet-cleaning—no pesticides at all. These nypirg-approved methods actually work. For years, the Klines have kept nearly every Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue high-rise free of verminous riffraff.